La absorción de la política por el espectáculo de lo real. Estudio de caso: El Objetivo

Jesús  González Requena; Lorenzo  Torres Hortelano

doi:10.4185/RLCS-2017-124

Authors

Jesús González Requena Complutense University of Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5937-1100
Lorenzo Torres Hortelano Rey Juan Carlos University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2017-124

Keywords:

spectacle of the real, political communication, television violence, reality-show, television, political attitudes

Abstract

Traditionally, the field of politics, while influencing television shows, did so in a few genres ‒news and political information programs‒ whose conventions acted as a break on its treatment as a spectacle or reality show. But recent years have seen quite a transformation which is the focus of this paper. This is the takeover of the realm of politics by the spectacle of the real with no limits on the hyping of topics, characters and political conflicts. This paper conducts both a quantitative and qualitative investigation of this topic. More specifically, we carry out a test for such a transformation via textual analysis of a Spanish TV program: El objetivo [The Target/Lens] on La Sexta Spanish TV channel. The results of the analysis confirm a fundamental transformation of the interview format in which the presenter acquires a more prominent role than the interviewee in terms of both her continual visual presence and of imposing the rules of the game. In this new format, she constantly interrupts the interviewee and demands headline-grabbing responses. Finally, the results confirm how this rise of the interview as spectacle involves an emphasis of the issues aiming to the trivialization of political content and attitudes.

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Author Biographies

Jesús González Requena, Complutense University of Madrid

Jesús González Requena is a Doctor in Information Sciences, Visual and Auditory Image Branch, Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid, 11-07-1984. Degree in Information Sciences, Visual and Auditory Image Branch, from the Complutense University of Madrid, 1977. Degree in Psychology from the Complutense University of Madrid, 1982.

Professor of Audiovisual Communication at the Faculty of Information Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid. Five recognized Research Sexenios.

President of the Trama & Fondo Cultural Association, publishing institution of the magazine Trama y Fondo. Reading and Text Theory.

Director of the research group of the Complutense University of Madrid Audiovisual Text Analysis, Theoretical and Methodological Developments (ATAD). Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Cinematographic Theory, Analysis and Documentation of the Complutense University of Madrid.

Professor of the Audiovisual Text Analysis subject in the Audiovisual Communication Degree of the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid. Professor of the subject Psychoanalysis and Textual Analysis in the Master in Psychoanalysis and Theory of Culture at the Complutense University of Madrid. Professor of the subject Psychoanalysis and Textual Analysis in the Master of Social Communication at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Member of the Scientific Committee of the Master University of 1 ° livello per Analisti di produzione cinematografica e televisiva, Università deglo Studi di Torino. Member of the Scientific Committees of the journals: Trama y Fondo. Reading and Text Theory, La Valle dell’Eden. Quadrimestrale di cinema e audiovisivi, Costa & Nolan, Torino, Fabrikart. Art, Technology, Industry, Society, University of the Basque Country, Advertising Issues, International Journal of Communication and Advertising, Thinking about Advertising, International Journal of Advertising Research, Communication, International Journal of Audiovisual Communication, Advertising and Cultural Studies, Latin Journal of Communication Social.

Most of his articles and doctoral seminars can be found on his personal page: www.gonzalezrequena.com

Author of the following books: The mirror metaphor. The cinema of Douglas Sirk (1986), The television discourse: postmodern spectacle (1988), The informative spectacle. Or the threat of the real (1989), Eisenstein. What requests to be written (1992), El Espot advertising. The metamorphoses of desire (1995, co-author: Amaya Ortiz de Zárate), The cinematographic analysis. Theoretical models, methodologies, analysis exercises, (1995, compiler), Léolo. Film writing on the threshold of psychosis (2000, co-author: Amaya Ortiz de Zárate), Los Tres Reyes Magos. Symbolic efficacy (2002), Classic, Mannerist, Postclassic. The modes of the story in Hollywood cinema (2006), Douglas Sirk (2007), Crazy love in the garden. The Goddess who inhabits the cinema by Luis Buñuel (2008), El club de la lucha. Apotheosis of the psychopath (2008), Ghostly scenes. A secret dialogue between Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Buñuel (2011).

H-Index: 12

Lorenzo Torres Hortelano, Rey Juan Carlos University

Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano is Doctor in Media Studies (Audiovisual Communication) by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has been TV producer, TV programmer and editor in Canal +, Quiero TV and Europroducciones.
He defended his doctoral thesis in 2005 about the film Banshun (1949) by Yasujiro Ozu. Since then he has published several articles and books about the Japanese, American and World Cinema. His specialty is the textual analysis following the Theory of the Text (www.tramayfondo.com).

Executive secretary of the Cultural Association Trama y Fondo and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Monumenta Mythica, a Journal of Myth, Legend, and Folklore Studies (edited by Fandom and Neomedia Studies (FANS) Association). Guest researcher at National Universities of Colombia, Tokio and Yale.

Currently he is a tenured Lecturer of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid), imparting the subjects of “Analysis and Film Theory”, “Audiovisual Script”, “Audiovisual Language” and “Audiovisual Narrative”. Two six years periods of research (“sexenios”). He belongs to the research group ATAD (IP: Jesús González Requena, UCM) and INFOCENT (José Mª Álvarez Monzoncillo, URJC). Finalist in the II Short Story Competition “La Gran Ilusión” (Renoir Cinemas). Artist residency fellowship UN (National University of Colombia) RAUN for foreign artists (creative documentary about displaced people by violence in the area of Sumapaz:

Sumapaz, el desplazado infinito (TBA 2018) http://www.facartes.unal.edu.co/residenciasartisticas/convocatoria.html

Autor of the following books: «Primavera tardía» de Yasujiro Ozu: cine clásico y poética Zen (2006), Directory of World Cinema: Spain (2011), World Film Locations: Madrid (2012), coed. with Helio San Miguel, World Film Locations: Barcelona (2013), Dialectics of the Goddess in Japan Audiovisual Culture (2017).
Articles: https://urjc.academia.edu/ljtorres

Index H: 2

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